Home construction, repair and remodeling projects often require installation or manipulation of electrical circuits, such as power outlets, light fixtures and telephone lines. Thus, it is often necessary to determine the status of these circuits in order to identify problems or prevent injury.
A wide variety of circuit testers are available which allow a user to determine the presence and magnitude of any electrical activity in the circuit. The vast majority of these devices, however, are designed to be used by professional electricians or people with some knowledge and expertise regarding electrical circuits. Moreover, such systems are typically designed for a variety of uses, such as testing exposed wires. Consequently, such testers usually provide two separate probes which are used to contact exposed electrical elements from which an electrical charge may be measured. For simpler applications, such as testing power outlets or light bulb sockets, such systems may be difficult and even dangerous to use--particularly in the hands of someone with little or no experience with electrical circuits.
Conventional testers typically do not allow the person testing the circuit to determine the status of the circuit from a remote location. For example, during construction projects, it is often important for a worker to know whether a particular outlet or circuit is "live." Very often, however, the circuit breakers which control power to various outlets are located in a different area of the construction project. In order to determine the status of the circuit, a worker will often plug in an electrical appliance or tool, such as a drill. The worker then switches on and off various circuit breakers until he or she hears tool turn on or off. While this approach is effective, it creates the hazard of an unattended operating electrical appliance.
Similarly, when performing home repairs, a individual may wish to know when a circuit is dead. A common approach to determine the status of a circuit is to station one person in the room where work is to be performed with a lamp or other appliance plugged into the outlet in question and while another person switches off breakers on the breaker panel until the lamp goes off, indicating that that circuit has been disabled. The person in the room then shouts to the person at the breaker board to indicate that the right breaker has been found. Obviously, this requires at least two individuals to perform the test, which may be impractical or inconvenient.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide in a single unit a circuit tester which may be used to test power outlets, light bulb sockets and telephone lines in a manner that safeguards the user from electrical shock or other related hazards. It also would be desirable to provide a circuit tester which allows a user to determine the status of a circuit from a remote location.